They are still available, of course. And for busy working mother types, this is tempting. Especially for the craft and creatively impaired such as myself. But they are essentially the opposite of what I believe in: made from chemicals, created and shipped from China (can you say carbon footprint), and packaged in and made from gobs of plastic.

So I was happy when my mother in law passed along a clipping from none other than Ladies Home Journal. Not exactly the site I’d go to for green advice, but they had this short article about how to dye eggs naturally with ingredients found in your kitchen. How cool is that?

Here are the directions:
“For all dyes, bring the dye mixture to a boil, remove from heat and cool and strain liquid into a medium bowl. Submerge 4 to 6 hard-cooked eggs in dye for up to 30 minutes, depending on how deep you want the color to be. Remove from dye and place on a cooling rack to dry and drain. Store in the fridge until ready to use.”

And the colors. I have most of this on hand except for the fresh beets!

“Orange: 2 tbsp paprika

Blue: 1 1/2 cups blueberries

Pink: 1 cup chopped fresh beets

Green: 1 cup blueberries and 2 tbsp turmeric”

From there you can let your children decorate them with markers, paint, or stickers for younger ones (although this will make them harder to compost at the end!).

Growing up I used to spend easter with my grandparents in France. There was no food coloring there, so my grandmother would collect the dry outer skins of onions (brown ones work best). We would then wrap the skins around the raw eggs before boiling them all together. The results were beautifully textured eggs. We would water color a few to have some contrast, but for the most part we had naturally dyed eggs.

wow great – at my kids’ waldorf school they also use colored tissue paper which leaves almost a batik pattern on the eggs = they are so beautiful – the egg blowing part though is the part that kills me. Thanks for these tips on where to get the natural colors – might try that myself this year!

[…] finger paint. If you’re feeling super crafty, it’s much cheaper to make your own dyes. Eco Child’s Play has some great recipes for dyes. If you’re not into making your own, check out these natural, […]